Region weathers job losses - Philadelphia Business Journal:

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Nationally, initial jobless claimas last week increasedto 573,000, the highest level since 1982.U.S. employers cut 533,000 jobs in according to the U.S. Labor Department’ws Bureau of Labor Statistics, which said the figured is the largest loss of jobs in one monthsincs 602,000 vanished in December 1974. It puts the nation’a unemployment rate at 6.7 In October, the most recentg month for which local figuresare available, the region had an unemploymengt rate of 5.7 percent, 0.8 percentage points below the then-nationalk rate of 6.5 percent, the BLS said.
One measure of job loss in New Jerseyh and Pennsylvania is the number of employees listed in noticese filed under the Worker Adjustment andRetrainingv Notification, or WARN, Act, which requires most employers with 100 or more workere to give workers and local and stat e governments 60 days notice of planned planft closings or mass layoffs. So far this 35 companies in the five-countg Philadelphia area have filed WARN noticescovering 4,21 0 workers with the That compares to 38 companies warningh about 4,480 job cuts by this time last In Burlington, Camden and Gloucested counties, 14 companies have filed notices affectingh 2,540 workers with the New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforcw Development, compared to only eight companies warninyg of 781 job lossez over all of last year.
Companies that have majotr operations in the area have implemented or announced atleasrt 19,500 job cuts, including more than 1,600 in the this year. The vast majorith come from four largepharmaceutical companies, which plan to shed 14,00 jobs. of Berwyn announced just Wednesdah it would layoff 2,500, but didn’t say how many would be local. The cuts also include 900 local jobs byWest Chester-basedf ; 190 jobs by Wayne-based recruiting softwarre company , which didn’t specify and 150 by the National Footbal League, which include a yet-to-be-determined number in Mount Laurel, N.J.
One reasojn the region seems to be farinvg better than the nation as a whole is its strengtbh in the education and healthservices sector. It’es the area’s second largest of 10 sectors, with 18.1 percentg of the employment, according to Select Greater which promotes the regionto businesses. Only two of the five broadf sectors delineated in the nationwider BLS release gained jobs in November education andhealth services, which added and government, which added “I used to say the Philadelphia region suffered from negativw serendipity; if industries would have a problem, it always seemee that it was industries we had.
In this case and in this the exact opposite seemzs to bethe case,” said Joel Naroff, chiefr economist for . In education, the area’s collegee and universities haven’t announced any layoffs, although has implemented a hirinh freeze and the has put in plac esomething that’s quite close to one. Big Pharma, big cuts In healthy care, the pharmaceutical industry has been hit hardestt byjob cuts. Four big pharmaceutical companies with large operations in theregion Wyeth, plc, plc and — this year have announced plans to shed more than 14,000o jobs through layoffs and not filling vacancies over the next few Wyeth of Madison, N.J.
, whicn has the headquarters for its pharmaceutical operationw in Collegeville, said 360 Pennsylvania jobs have been eliminatedd this year. AstraZeneca, which is based in Londobn and hasits U.S. headquarters in Wilmington, said most of its layoffe occurred outside of theUnited States. Merck of Whitehousre Station, N.J., and GSK, which has its U.S. headquarters in Researcb Triangle Park, N.C., wouldn’t say how many loca jobs they are cutting. As city maked cuts, retail shrinks Although the governmentr sector addedjobs nationally, the city of Philadelphiza wasn’t so lucky.
It plan s to lay off 220 employees and eliminate nearly 600unfilledx positions, more than 1,660 seasonal part-time jobs and about 570 contractual, non-city jobs. Government is the fourtb largest sector inthe area, with 13.9 percentt of the region’s jobs. The largest sectort is trade, transportation and utilities, which make up 18.8 percengt of the region’s jobs. It includes wholesalers and the latter of which have cut positionzs inthe area. The biggest retail blow came in Augustwhen ’s Department Store LLC of Reading closed its storeds in the Oxford Valley and Montgomery which employed 135 and 146, Tweeter, the Canton, Mass.
, electronics retaileer that filed for bankruptcy reorganization last liquidated six area stores that employed 96 earlie this month. The professional and business services sector, whichu is the area’s third largesty with 14.9 percent of workers, has fared relatively well so far. Only a small number of the roughly 4,409 lawyers employed by the 25 largest law firms in the region have beenlet go, but law firmds are cutting support staff. laid off 50 legalp secretaries over the summer and 115 support stafd earlierthis month. let go of 25 people, laid off 22 employeex in marketing and related departments and laid off 13support staff.
Financer and manufacturing are tied forthe region’e fifth-largest sector, with 7.9 perceng of the area’s jobs. The financial sector is gettinyclobbered nationally, but the area isn’t beiny hurt as much as othefr places because few of the struggling companies are based The world’s largest insurer, New York-baseds , which received a federal bailouty in September, owns struggling mortgage originator of Plymout Meeting. Wilmington Finance said in June that it wouldx cease wholesale mortgage banking originations and eliminatd 335 jobsby year’s end though it wouldn’t say how many would be local.
announces plans to eliminate 7,000 jobs over the summerf — and that was before the Charlotte, N.C.-bases bank announced its sale toSan Francisco’s Wellws Fargo & Co. Local Wachoviq spokeswoman Barbara Natesaid 5,000 of thosee jobs will come from the bank’w mortgage division. But she said the only local cuts whicgh she is aware of involvse roughly 60 employees from a mortgag e operations center in Bensalemm that will close in the next few New York-based , which now appears unlikelyg to get federal bailout money, said this fall that it will cut a quartere of the work force, about 3,0009 people, at its Minneapolis-based Residential Capital LLC subsidiary.
Locally, ResCap will eliminatwe about 180of 1,7600 positions at its GMAC Mortgage operations and pland to combine its Fort Washington and Horshaj sites in Fort Washington, a company spokeswomam said. ResCap will also eliminate about 90 of 440 positiones inCherry Hill. Local manufacturersd are reporting a drop in shipments andnew orders, especiallu those that make construction-related materials, accordinf to the Philadelphia Federao Reserve’s section of the Beige which was released Dec. 3. Philadelphia-based , being bough t by Midland, Mich.-based Dow Chemical Co., plans to eliminatee 925 jobs, mostly in its North American operations, includingh 50 to 70 in the area.
Transcontinental a Montreal printer, decidefd this month to shut down itsWarminster plant, which employs 460 and produces direct-mail advertisements. Construction slows, not stopped Naturao resources, mining and construction only accountfor 4.4 percent of the area’se workers, which is probably since the construction industry lost 82,009 jobs in November, according to the BLS. In spite of some major construction projects still appear to bemovingy forward.
has said it has the financial backing to break grounx on AmericanCommerce Center, a proposed skyscraper at 18th and Arch once it lands an anchor tenant for the The redevelopment of the Spectrum and area surrounding it at the Soutnh Philadelphia Sports Complex is slated to continued as planned with the razing of the Spectruj next year, and the nearly $800 millionn expansion of the Pennsylvania Conventiobn Center is making headway. Also, , owner of the Majorf League Soccerexpansion franchise, held a groundbreaking ceremony Dec. 1 to mark the starty of construction forits $115 millio stadium in Chester, whic h is expected to be completed by 2010. Theres are also projects in limbo.
has yet to breakj ground on Cira South, as the possible anchor tenant BlackRockGroup — hasn’t committed to relocating an operatio n from Plainsboro, N.J. Also, condominiuj projects, such as Mandeville Placs at 24th and Walnut Penn Treaty Tower along the Delaware Rivef and Parkway 22 off the Benjamin Franklin are on hold or havebeen scuttled. publicly traded residential developers, such as Horsham-basec and Bensalem-based Inc., have let employees go due to slow orderws andcanceled contracts.